Post navigation

Run External Applications From ASP.NET

To run an external application from your ASP.NET web application use the System.Diagnostics.Process.Start method for calling the application.

The first step for running an external application from an ASP.NET app is to create a ProcessStartInfo object, and then pass the name of the application to run as well as command-line parameters it might require. In the sample code below, we use the Java runtime to execute a Java program named ExternalJavaProgram, in this case the name of the application to run is java and the only command-line parameter required is the name of the Java program - ExternalJavaProgram.

In the page’s code-behind class :

Import the System.Diagnostics namespace.

Create a ProcessStartInfo object and then pass the name of the external app to run as well as all required command-line parameters.

Set the working directory to the external app’s location.

Start the external app process by calling the Start method of the Process class and pass the ProcessStartInfo object.

Code Example

private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
Process proc = null;
ProcessStartInfo si = null;
// create a new start info object with the program to execute
// and the required command line parameters
si = new ProcessStartInfo("java", "ExternalJavaProgram");
// set the working directory to the location of the the legacy program
si.WorkingDirectory = Server.MapPath(".");
// start a new process using the start info object
proc = Process.Start(si);
// wait for the process to complete before continuing
proc.WaitForExit( );
} // Page_Load